For thirty years, actress Charlotte Gainsbourg has impressed cinephiles in France and across Europe and America with her amazing performances both in French films and in the films of some the greatest international filmmakers, including Lars von Trier, Alfonso Inarritu and Todd Haynes.
Next summer, Gainsbourg will be appearing in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day Resurgence, which will be her biggest movie to date and her first true Hollywood blockbuster, but right now she can be seen in Samba, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s follow-up to the global blockbuster The Intouchables. The dramedy reunites the filmmakers with that film’s breakout star Omar Sy, who plays the title role of an illegal Senagalese immigrant trying not to get kicked out of France with the help of troubled social worker Alice, played by Gainsbourg. As with The Intouchables, the film mixes drama with humor and even has a bit of a romantic subplot involving its two leads.
ComingSoon.net got on the phone with Ms. Gainsbourg a few weeks back for the following interview to talk about this unconventional role for the actress.
ComingSoon.net: I spoke to Olivier and Omar yesterday and they both said nice things about you, as I’m sure you can guess. Olivier mentioned that he and Eric wrote the part for you, but when he contacted you, you were nervous about doing comedy. I was curious why that might be.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Well, the excuse is because I haven’t done a lot. I had done some in France and one was a big hit with Alain Chabat and since then, I was hoping to do another one and it never really happened. It’s a genre that I love and maybe that’s why I felt a little pressure on my shoulders just to feel that I was legitimately a part of it, because also, they were so comfortable with the comedy aspects and Omar is so comfortable with that. I was worried that I wouldn’t fit in. That was forgotten even before we started, because it was so easy to feel comfortable with them. Omar was so welcoming and just easy to work with. They do a lot of improvisations, but you just ride along. Nothing is a big deal, so yeah, I was maybe nervous before, but then it dissipated quite quickly.
Gainsbourg: No, not at all. That’s the thing that I wanted to tell them about. My approach was that I was going to play it as if it was a drama. Of course not, but you know what I mean with the separation of thinking about the character was going to be the same thing for me. It was fun to try and push my character. If she’s uncomfortable to make her a little too uncomfortable, to try to push it a little bit. That’s where I would find my comedy. I couldn’t try to be funny.
CS: Do you generally feel like you need to do a lot of preparation, for instance in this case when you’re playing a social worker, do you want to meet with people who do that for a living and get into their heads?
Gainsbourg: No, no, no. They all met with the real people before and needed to see how this all worked for other characters. My character, I wanted to meet with doctors and with the clinics that I was coming out of at the beginning of the film because that was my reality, and I wanted to be completely new to that, where they’re all working and I’m completely new, it’s not my job. I’m surprised by the whole thing, and little by little do I get comfortable and understand what the work is about.
CS: So I guess knowing too much wouldn’t help this character.
Gainsbourg: No, it didn’t help. That wasn’t what I was aiming for with the character. I needed to be isolated with my little health and mental problems. That was my obsession through the beginning of the shoot and also most of the shoot even, because she doesn’t change until quite late in the film.
CS: You and Omar and Tahar, you’ve all been appearing in some of France’s biggest movies that come over to the States. Did you know each other beforehand? Is there a tight circle of French actors who know each other?
Gainsbourg: No, not at all. I had never met Omar before and Tahar either, so no, everything was completely new. Maybe actors know each other. I can’t speak for the others, but I’m sort of in an isolated world, especially now that I’ve moved to New York. I can’t say that I know actors that well.
CS: The fact that Olivier and Eric thought of putting you together with Omar is great because you work so well on screen, although on paper I wouldn’t know if it would work or not, but it works well both in drama and the romance and humor. Can you talk about working with Omar and the variety in the scenes you do together?
Gainsbourg: I think at the beginning, we were both very intimidated by each other. I was very intimidated by all the comedy. I was a big fan of his work of course in “The Intouchables,” but he’s really part of the TV world in France, and so funny with his co-worker Fred and they do hilarious sketches together. As a comic, he was someone that I really loved and it was hard for me to feel like I would be able to play… I don’t know if I’d be able to improvise and to respond to any of his comedy and to not feel that it was something so far away from me. But it wasn’t the case at all. He was just so sweet and welcoming and also it’s true that his character, he’s not joking. There’s something very real about him, so it wasn’t as if we were just fooling around. There were real situations and real characters that we could relate to.
CS: I’ve spoken to a lot of French filmmakers and actors, but you’re not like other French actors who you see in every movie. You make interesting choices about the movies you do and not necessarily French films either.
Gainsbourg: No, I feel lucky to have made directors curious to hire me, directors that are not French especially, because I’ve worked with a lot of Italian directors, with Lars of course, who is Danish, German directors. I feel lucky to not be only French. There’s something very nourishing to have all these cultures, because I am attracted by many different cultures. European (films) are something that are closer to me, but to say that it’s not only French is for me a great joy.
Gainsbourg: Oh, yeah, it is. Completely my first big film because I’ve never seen such a scale. It’s so different and everything seems completely new.
CS: Is that something you shied away from or did no one ever think of asking you to do it because they assumed you weren’t interested in doing it?
Gainsbourg: I don’t really know. It never happened. I guess I wasn’t asked and I didn’t really push for that or try to move to Los Angeles. I didn’t try and this time when I was able to meet with Roland Emmerich, it was very easy for me to want to do it of course and I was thrilled that he chose me.
CS: You mentioned earlier being isolated from the French scene, but one of the things about “Samba” is that it’s very much about Paris as it is now and how immigrants deal with the system, so was it still something you were able to connect with even though you’re not living there anymore?
Gainsbourg: Yeah, I do, of course, especially because the situation seems… but it’s not only immigration. The whole country is in a bad state. I’m sure that there are other countries and it’s not the worst, but I do feel very concerned, yes, but it’s hard to know what to say when you’re promoting a film. You can’t suddenly go into politics and speak about heavy subjects even if the film does talk about the immigration and the situation of the people coming in to France and having no papers, and the whole nightmare of those situations. The film has no answers and it has no answers because it’s such a difficult, tricky subject, but if the movie makes you more aware of the situation then that’s great.
CS: But it’s interesting that Olivier and Eric found a way to deal with the subject without being preachy, but just telling the story of two people who meet in that environment.
Gainsbourg: I think the fact that it’s a comedy, it’s a great thing to be able to joke about very serious and tragic things. I think that’s the best.
CS: You’ve played some great women who are flawed and fragile, but they’re also empowering since they have to overcome something. Obviously, Lars writes great women characters, but is that something you gravitate towards normally while reading scripts?
Gainsbourg: Well, as an actor you’re always trying to find good characters. I feel like I’ve been lucky up until now. When you’re interested in a character, there’s something personal going on, but I’m thinking of myself and believing I need substance. I feel like that would be really pretentious. I’m just hoping to read scripts where I’ll be moved by characters. That’s the only thing that works really.
CS: They say that there aren’t many great roles for women in their 30s and 40s, so do you think that’s only true in the United States or do you think there’s more of those roles in the international market for you or is that changing?
Gainsbourg: I think it’s difficult everywhere. I think it’s not a good situation for a woman to be an actress and past 40, that’s for sure. Whether you can find interesting parts, I think it’s still become more and more of a battle, but it’s not easier in Europe, I don’t think. I mean, in America, you have great actresses that have proved they can have film careers with them. I think there are as little in America as there are in Europe I believe.
Samba is now playing in select cities. You can watch interviews with Gainsbourg’s co-star Omar Sy and co-director Olivier Nakache here.
(Photo Credit: Dennis Van Tine/Future Image/WENN.com)
